


Now It's Time To Learn

by dizzy



Category: Glee RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Childhood Friends, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-13
Updated: 2014-06-26
Packaged: 2018-02-04 12:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1779676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/pseuds/dizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A love story that starts (or doesn't really) at a company picnic when Chris is ten years old.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Boss

The first time they meet is at company picnic. Bankers, tellers, accountants, and bulky security men wander around a field. Tables are loaded with potluck side dishes, buckets of chicken, coolers full of soft drinks, and plates heaped with cookies that grubby little hands steal onto constantly. There's a baseball game and a soccer game going on the sprawling playground field, and a couple dozen children scream their heads off as the run around the playground equipment in a sandy pit off to the side. 

Chris sits under a tree by himself. It's just him and his dad, and his dad is off talking to a bunch of other middle aged men. His dad was worried all day - just the kind of guy he is, quietly stresses, turns red and sweaty with the anxiety of a new situation. His dad wants a raise, because there are lots of medical bills and his job is good but it's just not good enough and insurance companies are just swindlers - Chris has heard it all, or overheard it from his top stair perch while his parents argue in quietly impassioned voices. 

He overhears a lot, especially since he's not going to school right now. He was having trouble "behavior issues" (he doesn't argue when a teacher tells him to do something, he just... doesn't always do it) and "behind in schoolwork" (math is hard, numbers are hard, and his mind just wanders without him meaning to, and before he knows it his teacher is picking up the assignments from their desks and his is blank). He could happily go the rest of his life without ever seeing that expression on another adult's face, that blend of pity and annoyance. Poor little Chris, his sister's sick so they cut him some slack... but when he fails all the tests, what can they do? 

His tutor is easier. She's an older lady, a retired teacher. She brings him cookies and teaches him things he's pretty sure are at least two grades below him, but he finishes fast and he passes the quizzes and he's left with half the day to play in his room. His parents talked about signing him up for something - baseball or soccer, his dad wants him in sports. Chris would be happier with community theater. They went to see his cousin in a play there once. Hannah started crying halfway through but his parents left him there to watch the show, and Chris still thinks it's one of the coolest things he ever got to watch. 

But right now he's not in sports and he hasn't auditioned for any plays and, really, this is the first time he's been with a group of kids his own age since Christmas, when they went to his grandmother's house and he saw all of his cousins. They're not all bad. 

These kids... these are an unknown entity. He would sort of like to go play kickball with them, but he's had enough of being teased and laughed at and told to go away to last him a lifetime. 

No, it's better here, he thinks. It's better under his tree and he has a book. The book Encyclopedia Brown, a faded and worn library copy. He has to be extra careful so the back cover doesn't completely come off. His fingers stroke over the little creases and tears in the spine but his eyes aren't on the page. He's watching the other kids, the younger ones on the swings and slide and the older ones hanging around a bench. 

There's one boy there. Chris has seen him before, at other company picnics. His father is one of those men that Chris's dad goes all weird around and laughs too hard at his jokes. He knows the man has two sons, but the older one isn't around this time, just the younger one. Chris keeps looking over at him and he's not sure why. He's older, probably by a few years at least. He's taller than Chris and he has short curly hair and a big smile. The girls keep coming over to him. One even sits in his lap and Chris turns red at that and has to look away. 

The boy gets up on his feet and starts to bounce around, hopping onto the picnic table and belting out a song. His voice cracks a couple of times in the middle of it but the girls are all laughing and some of the adults start to clap. Chris hates the way his stomach goes to knots. He'll never be that boy, the one that everyone loves. 

He sighs and goes back to his book.


	2. Childhood Friends

There are people coming over for dinner. 

New people in the house makes his stomach go funny. He tries to describe it to his mother, telling her that he's sick. 

She stops what she's doing to fuss over him a little. She checks his temperate with her hand and then with a thermometer. "You just get a little nervous. Your grandmother's always been the same way. Just drives her into a mess to have people come over. But it's never that bad once they're here, now is it?" 

Yes, it is, but Chris knows there's no point in arguing. His shoulders slump. "Can I go to grandma's?"

She smiles at him and draws him in for a hug. It's unexpectedly nice, his face pressed against her stomach. It makes something in him settle just a little for just a minute, until he remembers again. "They have little boys," she says, her voice kind but dismissing. "You'll be fine." 

*

They do have boys, but they're not little. Chuck is already in high school and Darren is in junior high. Neither of them look twice at Chris until after dinner is over. He pushes the food around his plate and alternates listening to the grown ups talk about stupid boring stuff and the teenagers talk about school stuff and things that they're so familiar with they don't even have to explain to each other, dates and names and times and references that make them laugh. 

He thinks when he's finished eating he can escape, but life is not so kind. 

"Now why don't you go show Chuck and Darren your room while the adults have a drink?" Chris's dad asks him, patting him on the shoulder. 

Chris is absolutely certain there's nothing in his room that would be of any interest to either of them. 

"Dad, I have to be home by nine to call Melissa," Chuck says. 

His father gives him a look. "We'll get home when we get home, son." 

Chuck doesn't argue but he's sullen upstairs. 

Chuck pulls his cell phone out of his pocket, one of the navy blue ones that has the cool games on it, and the beep-beep-beep of Snake is the only sound that comes from him. "Ignore him," Darren says, leaning into Chris like he's whispering. "He's a total douche when he doesn't get to talk to his girlfriend five million times a day." 

Chris doesn't know what a douche is. Chuck clearly does, because he flips Darren off. 

It just makes Darren cackle with laughter. "Come on! You're totally pussy whipped!" 

"You _wish_ you were," Chuck shoots back. "Those magazines under your mattress just don't know how to show you that they care." 

Darren flops onto Chris's bed like it's nothing. 

Chris is still standing by the door. He wonders if they've actually forgotten that he's here. 

Apparently not, because Darren turns to look at him. "So, like - what grade are you in?" 

"I'm... uh." 

Chuck snickers. "Don't ask him hard questions, D." 

Chris's reaction to the insult is immediate and humiliating. His throat burns and tears well up in his eyes. Darren is still watching him, too, and that's worst of all. 

Darren sits up, frowning a little. "Hey, come on-" 

Chris turns and bolts downstairs. The growns up are all laughing at something but Chris doesn't hesitate long in the hallway. He goes through the kitchen where the adults won't hear him and into the back yard. 

* 

Ten minutes later, Darren comes outside. Chris is up in his favorite tree. He calls it his treehouse but it's really just a few boards his dad helped him nail down. He sits up in it sometimes to read or play with his toys or tease the dogs. 

"Hey, kid? I mean, Chris, right?" He calls out. 

Chris could not answer. He'd really rather not, but if he doesn't he's afraid Darren will go tell someone and the last thing he wants is all the adults outside or his mother making a big deal about it in front of all those people he doesn't know. The thought makes his stomach go funny again like he's going to be sick. 

His feet make a thud when he hits the ground. He's been crying but he hopes maybe it's dark enough that Darren won't be able to tell. 

"There you are!" Darren sounds relieved and walks over to him. He peers up at the little platform wishful thinking version of a treehouse and grins. "Oh, sweet. Can we both fit up there?" 

He's hopping up before Chris even answers. Chris follows him, finding his footing on the boards nailed to the tree as a ladder. There is room for both of them, but only by a little bit. 

"Listen, my brother's a total jerkface sometimes, okay? He didn't mean anything by it." Darren isn't even looking at Chris when he talks, and somehow that makes it easier. "He thinks because he's fifteen and he has a girlfriend and he's gotten to second base that he's totally the coolest but he's just kind of a dick. Mom says puberty is like becoming someone else for a few years and he'll snap out of it eventually." 

It's the longest sentence anyone besides his parents or his grandmother has said to Chris in a while. 

When Chris doesn't answer, Darren keeps talking. 

"I'm not gonna be like that. For one thing, I think my mom would go crazy if I turned into a Chuck, but even besides that. He's an asshole to me, too. Like I know I'm his kid brother but we used to hang out and stuff and now he's just up Melissa's butt and he doesn't want to go skateboarding or jam together or go to the movies or anything. And he won't let me coming with him when he's hanging out with his friends sometimes." Darren's voice drops lower, and it feels like he's letting Chris in on a secret. "I think it's because they smoke pot." 

Chris does know what pot is. He's seen those very special episodes of tv shows. "Drugs?" He's scandalized. 

"Yep. I mean, pot isn't like a bad drug or anything, but mom would still skin him alive. I'm not gonna rat him out, though. I'm hoping he'll let me try it when I'm a little older." Darren grins. 

"How old are you?" Chris asks. 

"Thirteen!" Darren says, pride in his voice. 

Chris finally answers Darren's question from earlier. "I'm ten." 

"Cool," Darren says, and it doesn't sound like he's making fun of Chris. "So was that a deck of Pokemon cards I saw in your room? I do the tournaments on the weekends. Chuck used to go with me, but, you know, I told how he is lately. He's too cool for it now." 

"Yeah," Chris says. "It's Pokemon." 

Not that he knows really anything about how to play with them, or has anyone to actually play with. They'd been a gift from a well intentioned relative for his last birthday. 

"It sounds like our parents are having a pretty good time in there," Darren says, nodding toward the house. They can hear music coming faintly from it. "If we end up coming back over for dinner I'll totally bring mine. We can play together." 

* 

They sit outside for another half an hour before Darren's parents come to collect him. He hops down from the treehouse and then keeps hoping backwards, laughing when he stumbles and almost falls. 

Chris follows him. He has stars in his eyes watching Darren, this happy boy who sat there talking to Chris like he was perfectly happy to be there. 

As soon as Darren and his family have left, Chris asks his mother if he can use the internet and starts to look up how to play with the cards so he'll know when Darren comes back.


	3. Comic

There are many things that Chris Colfer loves in life. When he starts getting upset or has a tantrum, his grandmother will sit him down and look at him with her sweet, weathered face and tell him that he needs to buck it and remember how lucky he is. 

So he tries to do that. He sits at the desk in his room and uses his favorite pencil he got at Disneyland and a sheet of paper from one of his school notebooks and he makes a list of things that make him happy. 

**His mom and dad.** They're the best parents ever, and he knows that means a lot because they're really busy with Hannah but they make time to do stuff with him, too. They forget things once in a while, but sometimes he forgets to do his homework so he will forgive them for that. 

**His sister.** She's his best friend, and it doesn't matter that she can't do a lot of the things other kids her age do. He's still the person that can make her laugh most and she follows him around like she thinks he's the coolest person ever. Chris loves that he gets to be special and her favorite. 

**His grandmother.** She's his other best friend. She picks him up every weekend and takes him to the park or the library - just him, not Hannah. She does other things with Hannah, and she does the same thing with some of Chris's other cousins too - the ones that want to - but Chris is sure he's her favorite. She remembers a lot of stuff about him that even his parents forget, too. For his birthday she got him the first three Harry Potter books and then when the fourth one came out she took him to the bookstore at midnight so he could play the games they had set up. He's going to ask her to get him a wand for Christmas, too. He's pretty sure she will. 

**Drama.** He finally convinced his parents to let him start doing plays. The ladies all like his voice a lot and they want to let him sing, which Chris thinks is cool. They've had a few rehearsals and meetings and he already loves how it feels to get to pretend like he's someone else. 

**Home School.** Chris's parents have been talking about sending him back to school with other kids to make sure that he's not going to grow up weird and antisocial, but Chris really doesn't want to. He's hoping that if he starts doing better on his work and proves that he can make other friends that they won't make him go back. 

**Writing stuff.** He's going to be a writer when he grows up. He's already written one little book for his grandmother, a story about adventures that his dogs take. He needs someone else to do the illustrations for him because he can't really draw that well but his grandmother said it had "authenticity and charm" and those both sound like they're pretty good things. 

**Darren.** Because he finally has a friend that isn't related to him or a senior citizen. Chris hasn't seen Chuck since that first night, but he doesn't care. Chuck was a jerkface, anyway. (That's what Darren calls him. Chris likes that word.) Darren's mom comes over sometimes and if it's after school, Darren will come with her. They'll hang out in Chris's room and mostly Darren talks but sometimes they watch a movie. After the awesome new X-Men movie came out and Darren found out Chris loved it, he even brought Chris some of his old comic books. He told Chris he'd already read them all and Chris could keep them if he wants. Chris has the stack carefully situation in his desk drawer. He reads them like they're precious, being careful with the pages and sometimes he just takes one out and stares at it, imagining Darren in his own bedroom (which Chris has never seen, but he makes up what it would look like) reading it. 

Chris sits back and looks at his list. He could write more, but they'd mostly be things and his grandmother tells him that material objects are never more important than people and the significance behind them. 

He thinks he's starting to actually get what that means. Darren's comic books are awesome but they're awesome because Darren gave them to him. 

He's not sure when Darren's birthday is, but he's already thinking about what he'll get Darren. It has to be the most perfect, coolest present ever. 

*

Chris asks his mom who asks Darren's mom and it turns out Darren's birthday isn't until February, and that's like half a year away. 

While they're on the phone, Darren's mom asks if Chris would like to come with Darren and a couple of his friends to the zoo. Chris feels lightheaded with the excitement of it. He's bouncing up and down (just like Darren does) while he waits for her to call his dad and ask if what he thinks. 

Apparently his mom is a little bit worried because Darren is 'so much older' - "Fourteen," Chris's mom says to Chris's dad. 

"Thirteen!" Chris interrupts, insistent. 

"Still, he's three years older, sweetheart. He's a teenager. Don't you think-" 

"Mom!" Chris feels his stomach sinking. "Please let me." 

His mother stares down at him, frowning slightly. Then she sighs and agrees with something Chris's dad has just said on the phone. "You're right, it's better than... I suppose, yes." She looks down at Chris and smiles then. "You can go. They'll be here in half an hour, go get ready!" 

"Yes!" Chris runs upstairs. 

* 

Darren's mom drops them off at the zoo and says she'll be back in a couple of hours. 

Darren has two friends with him. 

One of them is a girl. She's a pretty girl, blonde hair and lipstick on. She giggles at everything Darren says. 

Chris hates her. 

The sun is hot and Chris is too shy to ask for sunscreen. Halfway through the afternoon, his cheeks are pink and his skin stings every time bugs land on him. 

Darren is Darren, just like he always is, except that he does all those things that made Chris feel like Darren liked him a lot with everyone else, too. Darren's other friends don't really say much to Chris. They're not being mean to him... they just aren't really interested in trying to talk to him. Maybe they're annoyed that Darren brought a kid along. 

Chris isn't even sure if inviting him was Darren's idea or just Darren's mom's idea, and Darren was too nice to say no. 

Chris kind of gets that sick feeling in his stomach. The blonde girl tries to hold Darren's hand one. Darren just looks at her and smiles when she does it, which makes Chris feel even worse. A few minutes later Darren stops holding her hand, and that makes Chris feel kind of better too. 

He's relieved when Darren's mom picks them up. She looks at him in the rearview mirror a couple of times on the drive home but he tries to pretend like he doesn't see. 

He's not even sure Darren hears him say goodbye when Chris gets out at his house. He tells his mom that he had fun and then he goes inside and throws himself on the bed and cries a little.


	4. Piano

Chris doesn't see Darren for a couple months after that. His mom never exactly asks him, but somehow she seems to have that special mom-sense that tells her that he didn't really have fun. At least she doesn't rub it in that she was right when she said she worried about Darren being a little bit older than Chris, and it making a difference. 

But one night he gets home and his mother has his church pants and a shirt with a collar (the kind he hates) laid out for him. "We're going to see Darren play at a recital. Won't that be fun?" 

"I don't wanna go," Chris says, cheeks turning pink. "Can I stay with Grandma?" 

His father shakes his head. "Mr. Criss invited us. We're not going to be rude like that." 

Chris sulks the whole way there, but he doesn't argue because he hears things his parents talk about - things like how Mr. Criss is his dad's boss and his dad really needs a raise and Chris kind of thinks that maybe all the things their families do together is because Chris's dad thinks he'll get the raise more quickly if they're all friends. 

Chris will argue and throw a fit over a lot of things but he knows that Hannah's doctor stuff is expensive and he doesn't want to be the reason that anything bad happens like that. 

* 

They sit in the third row, beside Darren's parents and his brother. Chuck ignores Chris, like he always does, and Chris is just fine with that. 

He fidgets so much that his mother gives him a peppermint just to keep him quiet. 

As soon as Darren is on stage and the music starts, Chris's fidgeting stops completely. He's riveted by what Darren is doing. He can only see Darren's profile but Darren's eyes are closed in concentration and with the light behind him like it is, he looks like he's glowing with music. It's probably the prettiest thing that Chris has ever seen. 

* 

After the concert is over, their families go to dinner together. 

Chris sits beside Darren and he tries to remind himself that Darren thinks he's just a kid, but it's hard because Darren is so nice to him. 

When it's time for dessert Chris shyly suggests they get different things and split them. 

"Awesome idea," Darren says. He reaches out and messes with Chris's hair. "I'm gonna miss hanging out with you, dude." 

"What?" Chris frowns at him. 

"Oh, crap, sorry. I don't know if - Dad? Are we allowed to say yet?" Darren asks. 

Darren's dad laughs. "Well, I guess there's no point in keeping it a secret. Tim, you'll be getting a call from the head honcho tomorrow about this but just between us I thought it'd be a little more fun to break the news where we could celebrate... they're sending me to San Francisco and they're gonna make you an offer on my job." 

Chris tunes out of the rest of the adult conversation because Darren is talking to him again. "San Francisco! It's gonna be so sweet. We went last week to look at houses, and my room is so awesome." 

Chris might not have had the best time with Darren at the zoo, but still... faced with the idea that he might never seen Darren again, that Darren will be all the way in San Francisco - which seems like it must be pretty far away - he's crushed. 

Darren seems to notice. "Aw, hey, maybe you can come visit? Or you can give me your email address and we can be pen pals or something." 

"I don't have an email address," Chris says, looking down at his plate. "Maybe I can ask my mom if I can make one?" 

"Yeah! Mrs. C, can he?" Darren looks over at Chris's mom. "Can Chris make an email address so we can talk?" 

Chris's mother smiles at them. "Oh, I think we can manage that." 

"See?" Darren beams at him. "It'll be great." 

* 

Chris sees Darren one more time before Darren moves. Their parents all meet up for dinner and Darren asks Chris if he wants to go hang out in the tree house.

He's still a little embarrassed about the fact that it's not much of a house at all, but Darren seems to think it's a pretty nice spot. He sprawls out with his legs hanging over the edge and looks up and he talks. He talks and talks and talks like he always does and Chris... he mostly just listens, absorbing it all. 

Darren mostly talks about San Francisco. He talks about the music scene there and how his mom has already said he can go with Chuck to some of the under 18 clubs and how he has a list of concerts he wants to go to over the summer. 

The way he talks about life is so strange to Chris. It's so far removed from anything Chris has ever known or been exposed to, and it makes him a little sad because he can't really picture himself living in Darren's world at all. 

Maybe it's good that Darren's moving anyway.


	5. Tentacle

Chris is thirteen when his parents break the news that they're putting him back in school, in public school. He'll start high school at East Clovis and he knows he'll see the familiar faces of so many students he knows barely tolerated him before. 

He's ashamed to admit that he cries when they tell him. 

"Christopher," his mother says, pained but firm. "This is for the best. You need more friends your own age, sweetheart." 

"I have friends," Chris tries to insist. 

And he does. He goes to meet with his theater group once a week and he's in plays with them and it's great. He totally has friends. They may not hang out much outside of theater, but that's okay with Chris. He still likes playing on his own best, anyway. 

Except, some of them do hang out outside of the theater, but those are usually people who were already friends before or else they're boy-girl pairs and it's obvious - stupidly obvious - that they just _like_ -like each other. Chris kind of gets it, but also... no, he really doesn't get it at all. He got the whole your-body-will-change, you-may-notice-girls speech while out to an excruciatingly awkward lunch with his father after his mother found the stash of stained sheets he'd been trying to hide until he could sneak them to the laundry himself. He knows he's not a weirdo for what his penis does, but he also doesn't really have that kind of reaction to _girls_ yet, not like his dad talked about or like he sees the other boys doing. 

He's okay with that. He's got better things to do with his time than mope and moan over girls, anyway. And it's not like anyone would like him back even if he did have a crush on someone. 

"We think you'll do a lot better in high school," his father says. "It'll be a fresh start for you." 

Chris sulks away and barely talks to his parents for the remainder of the weekend, but he knows their minds are made up and there's really nothing he can do about it. 

* 

His parents try to soften the blow with a vacation. 

Hannah's been doing well and they can't go too far away from home and their doctors, but they tell him they have an overnight trip planned. His grandmother is coming to watch the dogs and the cats. They'll drive to San Francisco and get a hotel room overnight and Chris can pick out anything he wants to do. 

He sits with his mom at the computer and they look through the tourist websites. Chris, fresh off reading The Goblet of Fire again and possibly operating under the fantasy that he can take gillyweed and swim with the sea creatures, hones in on the aquarium. 

"That sounds just perfect," his mother says, beaming at him. 

Chris tries not to forget that he's supposed to be mad at them for sending him back to school, but it's hard not to be excited. 

* 

They wait until they're almost to San Francisco to drop the other bomb on him. 

"We have a special surprise!" His mother turns her head to be able to and look at him from where she sits in the front seat. Chris is in the back, Hannah asleep beside him. "We brought a friend for you." 

Chris immediately assumes that this can't be good news. He has no friends, especially not in San Francisco-

Wait.

No.

He sits up, eyes wide with alarm. "Who? Mom, who?" 

"Darren! Darren Criss, you remember him, don't you?" 

"Mom, it was two years ago, of course I remember." Chris slumps back. This is awful. Darren's going to think he's dumb and too young and there's no way this will go well. 

His mother isn't looking at him and she doesn't notice the sudden misery etched onto his face. She keeps talking, so pleased with herself for setting up such a great surprise. "You used to love playing with him so much when he'd come over." 

"Mom, he's sixteen now," Chris says, looking out the window. "He's not gonna want anything to do with me." 

* 

Darren greets him with a huge hug. "Dude! You grew up!" 

No, Chris wants to say. _You_ grew up. Darren is taller now, and his hair is grown out longer than it was before and curly all over the place. He has little downy patches of facial hair like he hasn't shaved yet but he probably will need to soon. 

Chris distantly remembers being ten and just wanting to be around Darren all the time. He assumed that discomfort and the years between would have destroyed that feeling. 

Not only is that feeling still there, but it's ten times stronger than it ever was before. It's not just that Chris wants to hang out with Darren, it's that he wants to be the one Darren is smiling at and the one making Darren laugh and the one Darren is talking to and the one standing beside Darren. 

After half an hour, his mother says that they're going to take Hannah somewhere quiet she can rest a little. Chris and Darren can keep exploring on their own, as long as they check back in every hour or two and listen carefully for their names over the intercom system. 

As soon as Chris's family is gone, Darren turns and looks at him with a mega-watt smile. "I was so pumped when your folks called mine." 

"Really?" Chris is having fun but he's still dubious of that. 

"Yeah!" Darren looks surprised at Chris's doubt. "I've missed you, man." 

He grabs Chris in a one-armed hug that makes Chris feel like he's floating on air. 

* 

Chris never wants the day to end. He's is normally the kind of kid who respects all of the rules and hates being scolded. Darren is that kind of kid at all. In front of an octopus exhibit, Darren flails his arms around like he's boneless. He hangs his arms in the air and wiggles his fingers and starts to chase Chris like he's a tentacled-monster. When he gets told off for it, all he does is nod and act like he hadn't realized he was even doing anything wrong. 

He winks at Chris over the aquarium worker's shoulder. Chris is sure his cheeks go pink but he's grinning too much to even care. Darren is _great_. 

He's just as great as Chris had remembered. He makes dumb jokes and gets in trouble for trying to climb rails and stand on things and tap on the glass, but he always apologizes politely and promises not to do it again... and keeps the promise until they've rounded the next corner. He winks at Chris conspiratorially and he leans in to whisper sarcastic comments about people's hair to Chris and he keeps up a constant commentary while they sit through one of the films that Chris definitely enjoys more than the actual movie. 

To Chris, the most surprising thing about being around Darren is that he stops being nervous completely after a while. Maybe, he thinks, going back to real school will be like this. Maybe he's making a big deal over nothing and when he joins them in the fall, the kids there will be fine. 

He's sad when the day actually is over and they have to meet back up with his parents. 

*

They're standing in the parking lot by their car. Darren says he's parked not too far away. 

"We're going to get some dinner before we go back to our hotel room," his mother tells Darren. "Do you want to join us, sweetie?" 

Chris holds his breath while he waits for Darren to respond, but when he lets it out it's with a disappointing rush. 

"No thanks, ma'am," Darren says. "I actually have a date tonight." 

"Ooh, look at you. I bet you are a ladies man." Chris's mother teases Darren, who just dips his head bashfully and shrugs. 

Chris rubs at his chest. He has no idea why it suddenly hurts right there, or why suddenly he just wants to get in the car and go home. 

He can't, though. He has to stand there and just... wait. 

It's probably a really pretty girl. 

"But are you guys going to be in town tomorrow?" Darren asks. "I bet my folks would love to get breakfast or lunch before you head back." 

"That's a good idea," Chris's mother says. "Should I give her a call in the morning?" 

"Yeah, but, even if she doesn't, here." Darren digs in his pocket and comes up with a receipt and a half-chewed on pen. He scribbles something and hands it to Chris. "Chuck and I have to share a cell phone, at least until he goes to college next year - which is totally dumb, don't get me started - but I have custody of it tomorrow." 

Darren turns to Chris and holds his arms out. "Hug time?" 

Chris is still disappointed, but he gives Darren a quick hug - or tries to. Darren's arms go tight around him and Chris is left with his face pressed against Darren's shoulder. He can still smell the slightly too thick scent of Darren's body wash when he steps back. 

Darren looks at Chris for a few more seconds, an almost uncomfortably close look, and then smiles. "See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Chris says, softly. 

* 

In the morning, Chris asks his mom if they can just eat on the drive back. His mother is disappointed but Hannah's tired and cranky anyway so she actually seems a little relieved, too. 

He catches his mother cleaning out her purse a week later, a stack of things she's going to throw away on the table beside her. He spies digits written in a blue ballpoint and his stomach flips. 

He grabs it when she isn't looking and goes upstairs with it. By the time he closes it carefully in a book on his desk, he has the phone number memorized.

**Author's Note:**

> One story, twenty five prompts. This is my fill for my crisscolfer bingo card. Tags, warnings, and rating will be updated as needed for new parts.


End file.
